So....any other suggestions as to what you would do if in this type of situation with these types of students? That's one thing that CELTA training doesn't fully teach you, I feel.

Anyway, I have come to a decision as to what I will do with the other adult class that this thread was originally based on. Still stumped on what to fully do with the other one.

Boy, having this job has truly taught me that I probably should stick with team-teaching jobs, ALT work, or work in a setting where I'm not the only teacher and have a text to follow. It's pretty tiring.

I've been having a really bad day so far so having people giving stupid comments relating to a post i did extremely quickly without the chance to reread it with the mindset of giving some advice seems pretty ( I don't want to use the word childish but its close) uncalled for.

I've been having a really bad day so far so having people giving stupid comments relating to a post i did extremely quickly without the chance to reread it with the mindset of giving some advice seems pretty ( I don't want to use the word childish but its close) uncalled for.

I liked your idea, but I don't think my bosses would go for something like that, personally and given the personalities of the students, I don't think it'd work too well. I do appreciate your suggestion, though.

So....any other suggestions as to what you would do if in this type of situation with these types of students? That's one thing that CELTA training doesn't fully teach you, I feel.

True, and I've thought the same thing sometimes, but then I think it's unfair to blame a professional teaching qualification for the appalling standards of educational quality in lots of EFL teaching environments. If your boss had an iota of genuine concern for their educational progress he would have a thought-out curriculum and wouldn't tell you they can "learn grammar at home".

I actually have a very similar situation to you, on Tuesday evenings I have a part-time gig and one of the lessons has a couple of middle-aged women and one high school girl. They're all very pleasant but don't really have any set textbook. They used to but said they didn't really like it so I just make something up each week. Luckily we have quite a few random textbooks lying around so I can grab something from them if I'm really stuck, or I just do something I've come up with. One possibly useful hint is that I always have random good ideas for teaching at odd moments during the day but of course they don't come back to you just like that when you're about to go into class, so I started writing down ideas for lessons when they came to me in a notebook, then when the class came round I'd just look in there and get some ideas. They're just simple, random ideas, like some game type things, ideas for quizzes, role-plays etc. but it's very useful to have ready made ideas, then the lesson planning is easy. What does your school have in the way of resources? What are you told to do in terms of class content? The familiar "Anything ok!"?

hagiwaramai: Well, in my case, I don't think it's so much the "how" but more so the "what" that's the challenge as of the moment. Coming up with lessons to do, blind, imo, is a bit difficult. I guess it is somewhat like an, "Anything's okay" type set up, just as long as it's okay with the boss.

I've been having a really bad day so far so having people giving stupid comments relating to a post i did extremely quickly without the chance to reread it with the mindset of giving some advice seems pretty ( I don't want to use the word childish but its close) uncalled for.

Nobody is being pedantic because you may have made one small typo. Nobody is perfect. We all write on a forum and realize we've spelt something incorrectly; however, there is a big difference in doing that and spelling the same word incorrectly three times.

What does that imply? That implies that you're not aware of the difference between their/there (of course when you think about it i'm sure you know the difference) and the reason I made the comment is that you're an English teacher. I fear that you make those mistakes in the classroom and a student learns this spelling.

What does that imply? That implies that you're not aware of the difference between their/there (of course when you think about it i'm sure you know the difference) and the reason I made the comment is that you're an English teacher. I fear that you make those mistakes in the classroom and a student learns this spelling.

As opposed to someone simply being tired or having an off day or any other of a range of reasons? Given the person making the mistake is a native speaker, the odds are one of those before the chance of "not knowing the difference" would come up as a choice.

In context (ie. here, where poor language skills and lack of knowledge about language are on display by "language teachers" all day & every day) it was hardly something worth commenting on. If it were then we should spend some time on something that is actually important to meaning like, say, the Oxford comma. After all, it's not like anyone here is claiming they didn't understand, are they?

But back to the OP, you could always have them read Dave's Japan board and see who can get to 10 errors first on any given thread page, then pick out a dialect error and discuss why it's OK in one country/region/area & not any other. Then compare & contrast with Japanese equiv. The first part caters to the OK learners and the second caters to the advanced learners while also challenging the ones further behind, while the Jpns comparison caters to everyone and gives them some context about "correct" language.

That implies that you're not aware of the difference between their/there

Actually, among there, their and they're. But that really would be pedantic.

I just thought it was rather ironic to see such mistakes in a thread titled "Grammar Issues". I didn't harp on it, merely pointed them out. If you are offended, I can only suggest that you don't type so fast and that you do indeed reread before posting.

That aside, the advertisement for my job is up on places like gaijinpot, so if you're interested in working at a very small eikaiwa, with no set curriculum or framework to follow as well as no assigned text (in some cases) and also have good communication skills in Japanese and very good with Japanese culture, should take a look at the official ad. I guess I'm allowed to mention this here, just as long as I don't give the company name, I suppose. You will be the only teacher though.

I'm glad that I'll be through with this job soon. I like the idea of working in an eikaiwa, just not in this way. I like challenges, just not to this extent. I definitely need people (fellow teachers) to work with in this kind of a setting.